Eco Group

Committed to promoting responsible stewardship of our natural resources, we have demonstrated continual improvement in our use of materials and resources. As a result we are one of only a handful of churches to achieve a second Eco-Congregation award.

  • Installation of cycle racks a wildlife garden
  • Ground source heating
  • New tea and coffee systems within the church using Fairtrade products
  • Hosted a successful Fairtrade Breakfast
  • Eco tips and news

All these factors have contributed to the Church gaining this award.

St Catherine’s Eco Group Goes Bats

If you were wandering around Aston Flamville on Thursday 28th August about 8pm you may have spotted a number of mysterious people ‘lurking’ around St Peter’s Church churchyard.  Well, they were the St Catherine’s Eco Group and we were Bat Spotting. Don Peacock had arranged for Ann and Natalie from the Bat Society  to come along and set up their video and recording equipment.  We discovered that we had two species of Pipistrelle  Bats in the church. The common pipistrelle and the soprano pipistrelle (they were only split in the 1990’s, when it was discovered they had two distinct frequencies that each species use to echo locate). Both species were detected on the night we were there.
 There is a fair number of them also roosting in the trees. The ones in the church do not fly around in the day but fly around in the evening to warm up before going outside to catch insects.  We, the Eco Group asked if we needed to install bat boxes to secure their future but the good news is, it
was deemed unnecessary as they were thriving.
A few facts about Bats:
1.  They have never needed to evolve. A bat skeleton was discovered that was about 250 million years old and it was the same as the ones that are flying around today.
2.  A female bat will mate to become pregnant but will not start her pregnancy until climate conditions are good. If during the pregnancy the weather conditions become poor she will ‘stop’ the pregnancy until the conditions improve. Then she will recommence it.
3. The world’s smallest bat is the Bumblebee Bat, while the largest is the Giant Golden-crowned Flying Fox, with a wingspan of up to 6 feet.
4. Bats can live surprisingly long lives for their size, with some species surviving for 30 years
Grateful thanks to Robin Wilson ( church warden) for his support. 

Christian Aid Curry Night at the Tiffin

We would like to thank all those who supported it by buying tickets, donating raffle prizes, buying raffle tickets, and making donations. A good time was had by all we raised £743.00.

BLISTER PACK COLLECTION FOR RECYCLING

This campaign has been a great success and will have saved thousands of blister packs from going into the ground.

  • Please note that we are not able to collect blister packs in St Catherine’s for the foreseeable future.  
  • Please take your empty pill packets and put them in the box in Boots Chemist in Castle Street

  * But please don’t give up! *

What is an Eco Church?

The Eco Church survey provides a framework to support your church and its leadership to take practical action on caring for God’s earth. The survey covers five key areas of church life:

  • Worship and teaching
  • Buildings and energy
  • Land and nature
  • Community and global engagement
  • Lifestyle

Our repsonses to the  Echo Church Survey in 2016 showed that we had achieved Gold Standard!

Gold Eco Church Award in 2016.